The Art Deco Capital of New Zealand, lined with palm trees and rows of rectangular buildings painted pastel colours, Napier really does embrace it's architectural heritage. Every year they even host an Art Deco Weekend where everyone gets into costume, and drives their vintage cars to the town centre, reliving the 1930's. We weren't there for that as it's a summer thing, but I loved just walking around and seeing the architecture everywhere.
The main reason for our visit to Napier was to actually visit some of the many wineries around the Hawke's Bay region. Since neither of us wanted to be sober driver, we had only a day to do it and it was the wrong season, we opted for a tour. Princy's Tours were awesome. We were picked up from our accommodation promptly at 12.30pm by a very friendly and knowledgeable tour guide. To this day I don't really know exactly what we learnt that day, as the day progressed the less I could remember. I'll try my best to recount it anyway.
Our first stop was at The Mission winery, the oldest winery. We learnt about it's history with Catholic Missionaries and the great feat of bringing the grand old building up to the spot it is now located. It is an incredible spot with views of Napier and the vineyard below. Apparently every Saturday for the next 2 years is fully booked out for weddings. You can see why it's so popular.
Our next stop was Moana Park, a vegan based winery. We sat in the sun in a barnyard setting and learnt about what Moana Park wineries do differently. Being intolerant of fish it was really good to hear they use no fish oil or milk and egg products in the refining of their wines. They also less sulphites than most other wines which mean you can drink more wine and wake up with less of a headache!
We went on our merry way to our next stop, Trinity Hill. A more modern indoor setting but still surrounded by the traditional wine barrels. We sat at the bar and tasted a few samples of their Spanish influenced wines. They made an amazing Tempranillo!
By this time I was having to start pouring out most of my glasses of wine as I was unsure how I would make it to our last and final winery, Ngatarawa (Na-ta-ra-wa). Ngatarawa translates to mean 'between two ridges' as it lies at the base of two mountains. This was my favourite setting. It was late afternoon so the sun coated everything in a warm golden light, or maybe it was just the wine talking. We spent more time here, taking in the scenery and nibbling on some much needed cheese and crackers (please note: eat more before the tour starts). Whilst this was our last winery, it wasn't our last stop for the day. We drove up to Te Mata Peak (blog post here), a perfect end to our day.
This was my first wine tour but hopefully not my last. I can say I have definitely learnt a lot from this experience, like drink more water and eat more (or else you'll end the day with a pounding headache and have to have a 2 hour nap). Next time I'd love to come back in the summer and do a cycle tour, pedaling through the flourishing grape vines.
The Mission Winery
Moana Park
Our view from the sun soaked deck, Moana Park
Trinity Hill
Ngatarawa Winery
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